Where is Gooserider?

[Gooserider]

Nice to see you had success. You have good friends around you. Your solid floor for the garage sounds interesting. Does it ever set solid or is it more of a stable/flexible base? Sounds a lot like what I would see under landscape pavers, referred to as quarry dust. Although that is all fine grit. It does compact tight and holds form well.

The idea of soil cement is that it does set up solid, sort of like concrete, but is less expensive since all you are purchasing is the actual cement, and not all the other stuff that goes into it. The downside is that it isn't necessarily as durable as concrete, especially if the soil isn't really good for it. How solid it is an how well it holds up is a function mostly of the soil type and how much cement used. Generally it isn't highly recommended for heavy duty applications, but it is fine for light duty service. My soil, since it was originally sand /gravel was pretty ideal, and I mostly use the garage for storing relatively light stuff like my old bikes, OPE stuff and other odds and ends that aren't all that heavy. Originally I had the base built out of just gravel which kind of worked but wasn't ideal as it never did pack down really solid. It became a problem when I ended up in a chair as it would have just enough give to let my drive wheels sink in and get me stuck. Now it is very solid even just a few hours after packing it down. A lot of the crew yesterday were very impressed, and said it looked almost like a poured concrete slab.

Gooserider

 

[fishingpol]

It was great to meet Goose and be part of the work day. I will say he is the man with the plan. With all the people there, and all that needed to be done, he had thought out everything that needed to be done. His group of friends were fantastic to work with, and a most friendly bunch.

The weather was supposed to be decent but the rain arrived early. Most of what needed to be done got done. The tin shed probably needs a few people with carpentry skills for a half day to finish. The bulk of the work was the portable garage, but once we got going and figured it out along with Goose's instructions, it was well underway. The food was great and plentiful. It is amazing how well that group communicated to get the work done. The cement soil floor was impressive when finished. He has a great circle of friends and neighbors down there.

 

[Gooserider]

Fishingpol - I have a quick question for you... I was talking with Brian today about what would be needed to finish up the tin shed. (And he was saying that you were doing a great job of leading on that project) He was under the impression that you had everything cut, except that there was one more piece of wood that was needed to put everything together.

Do you know just what is needed, and can you tell me? We will be heading up to NH this Saturday, and can easily stop at a Home Despot or Slowes and get whatever is needed. I am assuming that whatever remains to be done beyond that should be pretty obvious to anyone with decent carpentry skills?

Gooserider

 

[fishingpol]

You need a ridge board at least 13 feet long if I recall the length of the shed. It can be made in 2 sections. It can be a regular kiln dried 2x4 or 2x6. All the rafters are cut on the angle to meet up to the ridge board. The rafters may need a little trimming for length, but they should already be close, before the roof panels go on. If a plywood sandwich or a few collar ties can be put up, it would strengthen the roof tremendously.

I could help out for a half day at some point if need be. I have a few commitments over the next few weekends, but somewhere mid to late July, I could make it down again to finish that up. I would just need a few skilled hands to help out.

 

[Gooserider]

Stopped at Lowes over the weekend, picked up a 14' 2x4, and about 30 Simpson Strong-tie roof anchor plates. I figure that I still have a lot of those leftover deck board offcuts like we used to make the ramp into the shed, those should be good for wind beam reinforcing as well...

I've talked with Brian a little, and it sounds like we could do a mini-gathering to finish up around the end of July. Probably won't ask Domi to cook for us again, but we can either do grillables, or pizza, or whatever other stuff folks would like...

In other good news, stuff is slowly starting to move on my accessible van. Finally got the blessings of the Mass. Rehab engineer on the project, and he sent out bid requests to all the mobility dealers on his list late last week... The dealers now have a week or two to set up meetings with me to discuss the details, and get their bids in. (So far only one has contacted me, but I am just as glad since he is the one I'm leaning towards anyway...)

Gooserider

 

[fishingpol]

That works for me Goose. Late July is fine, and will let you know what days I am available. Don't worry about food. I live on ham sandwiches if I have to. I will be more than happy to bring a cooler of grub. It is nice to see progress is moving on the van.

On a material supply note, if we are going to use fastner plates, can you pick up a few boxes of SPAX screws. They are constuction screws that drive easily into wood. We can use the shorty joist hanger nails at the lower end of the rafters, but at the top plate, screws would be fantastic. 1 1/4" at the longest for the metal plates and probably 1 1/2" for the collar ties.

I'll bring my ratchet set to put the lag bolts into the corner posts in the frame.

 

[Gooserider]

OK, will look for the SPAX screws the next time we go to a suitable store.

I do have about half of a big bucket of deck screws that we used when building the ramp - would those do for at least part of the job? They are Phillips head, and either 1.5 or 2" long as I recall...

Gooserider

 

[fishingpol]

Deck screws could work for the collar ties. Need a shorter screw for the strong tie plates. 1 1/2 - 2" screws will go through the framing and split the ends of the wood. Home Depot has the spax screws. Green plastic box.

 

[tickbitty]

Gooserider, how are you doing? Hope things are progressing for you and getting a bit easier one way or another. I see you posting now and then and was just wondering about you and Mary Anne.

ETA, DANG, I just saw the posts you had about the chair from Moon, va!! I'm about an hour and a half from there, and have some connections with folks there, I am SO SORRY that I didn't see your earlier posts and couldn't help you out on that. Sheesh. I feel awful. But I am very glad you ended up getting it.

 

[Gooserider]

Past time that I did another update on what is happening with me and so forth...

Medically things are pretty much the same... I've gotten off a lot of the meds that I was on, the few that are left I will probably be on for life or close to it... No change in what I can / can't move, and so forth...

It took a few weekends, but between several friends, we got the roof on the tin shed finished, it seems to have come out pretty well. The shed isn't as critter proof as it was, and there is a pretty significant gap between the top of the walls and the underside of the roof sheets, but I think it's going to be plenty weather tight. The clear plastic roofing is a big improvement as the shed is well lit inside during the day. I still need to work on sorting out all the stuff that was in the shed and seeing what got ruined by the wet, and what can be salvaged and / or moved out to it.

We got the van finally, though I still don't have my license back so I can't drive it yet... It's a 2010 Chrysler Town and Country, with a Braun "Entervan" conversion - dropped floor, fold out ramp, etc. plus a lockdown to let me drive from the wheelchair, and hand controls. The modifications were much more expensive than the cost of the van, but Mass. Rehab is paying for them, so all we had to pay for was the van itself. I'm expecting to get my driver training in January, and my license shortly thereafter, so I should be on the road fairly soon - don't say I didn't warn you! :coolsmirk:

I've gotten the chair that I purchased stripped down to the frame, and have some ideas on what I want to do in rebuilding it, but have been somewhat on hold because I don't have the equipment to weld on the aluminum frame... I do have some potential connections to people that can help me with it, but I need to get my license back so that I can take stuff to them...

So overall I'm doing about as well as can be expected. Just wish I could figure out how to get back into heating w/ wood....

Gooserider

 

[tickbitty]

Thanks for the reply. That's a good report on getting off most of the meds.
Man, you are quite a guy, rebuilding and customizing your own motorized chair! Glad the shed's back in shape.
Look forward to your reports of driver training, I'm sure driving again will give you a good measure of independence back.
Heating with wood again shouldn't be too far behind then right?!

 

[Danno77]

So overall I'm doing about as well as can be expected. Just wish I could figure out how to get back into heating w/ wood....

Gooserider

Thanks for the update, Goose. I have been wondering.

As for the wood burning, do you still have a stove installed? Just wondering how feasible it would be to toss some of those bio-bricks or equivalent into it. You get some of the fun of playing with the stove and tending the fire, but you don't have to worry about the wood collection and the mess associated with it. If it's something you are interested in, I think Santa Clause might be reading this thread...

 

[woodmiser]

Stuff is slowly coming together for the build day on June the 11th...

I have also gotten the pool lift that I will need to be able to get in and out of the pool - still need to get it around to the pool area, and deal with the eBay vendor who didn't include the battery pack or charger for it, and didn't say they weren't included in the description... I'm putting a couple pictures of the lift down below - the first is as it came off the truck, and sort of reminded me of the "Trojan Rabbit" from Monty Python & The Holy Grail... The second is what it looks like once I got it unwrapped... It weighs several hundred pounds, but I think a lot of the weight can be broken up as it has a bunch of steel counterweight plates under the cover.

just hoping for good weather....

Gooserider

I have a 12v SLA charger and battery (7Ah) hanging around - Useful?

Not tremendously, unfortunately most mobility stuff runs on 24VDC these days. Chairs and such tend to use 2 gel or AGM batteries, and the pool lift is supposed to be a 24V nicad pack.

I do have a stair climbing gizmo that uses a 12v SLA battery, but we don't use it very often as it is kind of awkward and cumbersome - it only mounts on a "transport" style chair that I can't be in comfortably for very long, so using it means carrying two chairs, plus the climber itself, and means I have to transfer in and out at each end of the stairs. In addition it requires that it be operated by a fairly agile attendant who can climb up and down the stairs as the unit moves, which Mary-Anne isn't quite coordinated enough to do.

I'm actually hoping to get away from the mobility chargers eventually. They tend to give a very slow charge, and don't really treat the batteries "kindly" for a number of reasons. What is recommended over on WheelChairDriver is a "Hyperion 1420" charger, which is a very flexible charger from the RC hobby industry - not cheap, as it usually sells for around $175, and it needs an additional power supply, but it can charge just about any size or chemistry of battery at a very high rate (20A) with great precision, which is needed with the LiPO packs used in a lot of RC models (They will explode or catch fire violently if overcharged) It is somewhat overkill for lead batteries, but I would eventually like to go to LiFePO4 batteries, and in the meantime it will maximize the life of my Pb batteries, which need all the help they can get... One of the things that WCD does is go into a lot of detail about how best to set up the chair and charging systems to maximize battery performance and lifespan - something the chair makers do a very bad job on (perhaps because the mobility dealers sell batteries???) A lot of the suggestions are based on some very detailed discussions that were held with the battery manufacturers and much experimentation - the guy that runs the site is very hard on his batteries, and says that he has already gotten at least twice as much lifespan out of his latest set as he is used to, all because of the way he currently handles charging.

However if you need a new home for it....

Gooserider

Look into A123 batteries (LiFe) They aren't fire bombs and can be charged at 10C which is 10 times it's capacity.

 

[Gooserider]

Gads how time flies when you are (not) having fun.... Seems like it hasn't been that long since my last update, but now I see that it has been many months - far longer than I intended. I kept thinking I need to do an update, and then got busy doing something else, and it would slide...

So at any rate...

Medically, not much has changed - nothing that didn't work before has started working, and vice versa. A few trips to the hospital for Urinary Tract Infections (a chronic problem that goes w/ spinal cord injuries) but nothing major otherwise....

Biggest changes have all been from one biggy - I'm driving again! As I mentioned back in November, we had gotten a handicap van with the help of Mass Rehab, and I was finally able to take my license reinstatement test in April (It had been scheduled for March 1st, but we had one of the winter's few storms that day and the Registry cancelled everything...)

Being able to travel on my own really makes a huge difference, it is hard to appreciate until you lose the ability just how much you use it....

I also had a big adventure in May when I went to the Libertarian Party National Convention in Las Vegas - first solo trip since I was injured (Mary-Anne had just started a job, and didn't feel she could take the time off), first trip on an airplane (You think TSA is a pain, try it in a chair - took me 30 minutes to get by them in Manchester, 20 minutes coming home in Vegas) and so on. I made it though, and had a great time. I'm also tremendously impressed by our nominees this year - Former NM Gov. Gary Johnson, and Retired Judge Jim Gray.... Won't make a pitch for them here (Don't want to get moved to the trAsh Can ) but strongly suggest Googling for them, especially if you are a Ron Paul supporter...

Currently the biggest thing I've got going on though is that I've become an "inmate" at the Artisan's Asylum a "maker-space" in Somerville, MA. For those that aren't familiar with the concept, a maker-space is a sort of "collaborative workshop" where people that are into making things get together in a shared space and share their various tools and skills in order to make things ranging from practical to artistic. The big benefit is that you get access to all sorts of tools that you couldn't afford or justify in the home shop, let alone have room for.... By being a member, I get access to Milling machines, Lathes, TIG and MIG welders, a full electronics lab, sewing machines, a very complete woodworking shop, and more... They also offer courses in how to do stuff and use any equipment that you don't already know.... The Asylum is in the process of building an expansion that will bring it to 40,000 square feet, making it one of the biggest maker spaces in the world. Most of it is used by individual "studio spaces" (aka "Cubes") that are rented to members for personal workspace and to store their tools and projects - currently there is a 6-12 month (or longer) waiting list for studio spaces... In the meantime I'm sharing space on the top of one of the other member's pallet storage areas, and packing stuff in and out... I hope to be getting my own pallet soon though.
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa193/Stoveburner/This is a link to an album that contains some of my projects, and a photo-tour of the Asylum... http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa193/Stoveburner/ I've had to do some extensive repairs on our swimming pool lift, including making adapters to fit the replacement linear actuator I had to get for it, and rebuilding the control box. Finally got it going just in time to have the pool filter break down, now I'm fighting to get the "green lagoon" back under control so that I can actually go swimming before the season ends...

Currently I'm working on an "electric foot pedal presser" - a device that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere on any of the HP sites I now spend most of my time on. The idea is that there are lots of devices, including TIG machines, sewing machines, and so on, that are designed to be controlled by a foot pedal, usually because your hands are busy doing other stuff. Since my feet don't work, this poses a problem, and rather than trying to find a different solution for each different machine, I'm making a universal device with a holder for the foot pedal and a sort of piston that will push it, controlled by a speech recognition system....

I'm figuring that this will be a unit that will stand me in good stead once I get back to working on the actual chair project, which has been on hold for a while....

In other news... Mary-Anne is once again looking for a job (for that matter so am I...) If anyone knows of any senior / principal software engineer jobs let me know... I'm more looking for something part time in the way of electronics / mechanical build / test tech or jr. engineer.

We also have had a moderately large swamp maple come down across our circular drive, along with a fair number of large branches and other small trees from last fall's surprise storm that I can't get to in order to deal with. Anyone near Billerica, MA that feels like scrounging, let me know - probably about 1/4-1/2 cord worth, maybe a little more....

Gooserider

 

[HollowHill]

Gooserider, that pedal presser sounds way cool. Great idea! Good luck with it. Thanks for the update.

 

[Flatbedford]

Good to hear from you. Better to hear that you are staying busy and doing stuff that you enjoy. That place sounds awesome.

 

[begreen]

Hey Goose, it's great that you can drive again. That is a big step. I'm glad to hear that you are getting out and about. Hope someone listening here has a chainsaw and can clear up that maple pretty quickly. Maybe post a quick note in the woodshed asking for some help with its removal.

 

[firefighterjake]

It's good to hear from you Goose.

 

[ScotO]

I'm a relative newby here in terms of your membership, Gooserider. But I have scanned over a lot of your posts and I really enjoy them. I also share alot of the same political views as you (as stated we won't get into that on here), and I have gone through your post in regards to your accident. Great to hear you are making progress, great to see you back on the site. Keep the faith, stay the course and continue to press on!

 

[nate379]

Who keeps deleting my posts? This will be my THIRD post in this thread! PM ME if there is a "problem". I hardly think I'm being rude or not following any forum rules?

Was just wondering exactly what happened? Saw the part about the tree falling, but you are in a wheelchair now?

I fell off a 10ft roof about 2 years ago and broke my back in a few places. Dr's said I was VERY lucky to be still walking.

 

[fishingpol]

Nice to hear from you Goose. If someone can help you on the tree, great, if not and you want it cut up and rolled into the brush, I can help you. I need a few medium rounds for a wood turning project anyways, it may be a good opportunity to grab some.

Take care.

 

[Blue Vomit]

Who keeps deleting my posts? This will be my THIRD post in this thread! PM ME if there is a "problem". I hardly think I'm being rude or not following any forum rules?

Was just wondering exactly what happened? Saw the part about the tree falling, but you are in a wheelchair now?

I fell off a 10ft roof about 2 years ago and broke my back in a few places. Dr's said I was VERY lucky to be still walking.

Dude's been through hell. Go back to page one and start reading... Or don't. Your choice.

 

[begreen]

Gooserider moderated here. He had a very serious tree-cutting accident. It's left him paralyzed from the waist down. The first post in this thread by Mary-Anne sums it up.

 

[Gooserider]

It isn't me Nate, it looks like my "magic buttons" went away with this new software (no big deal...)

As to what happened, the quick version is that I was taking down a tree with a big snag in it, so I put a rope on it, made shallow cuts, with the plan that my friend would winch it over w/ a come-along after I got away from it. This worked, except the snag broke loose, as expected, but bounced when it hit the ground, and followed me right down my escape path. If I'd gone 5' further it would have missed me! It separated my right shoulder, broke a bunch of ribs, and my left leg. We called 911, and the paramedics came and did a great job of picking me up and hauled me to Lahey Clinic, the local trauma center, which has a very good reputation. The ER folks discovered that one of the broken ribs had punctured my aorta. They went in to do the emergency surgery to fix that, and apparently left the blood supply to my spine clamped down for to long - When I rolled into the operating room everything that wasn't broken worked, but I rolled out a paraplegic - this is a known risk of the surgery, about 5% of folks going in for most any major open chest surgery come out with spinal cord damage. One support group meeting I went to, almost 1/2 the paras were in their chairs as a result of "bad surgical outcomes"

Bottom line is I'm now officially a "T-5, ASIA-B" paraplegic w/ "Lower motor neuron damage" - from about the bottom of my ribcage down, I have feeling, but no significant /useful motor control - I'm wheelchair confined, and barring major medical breakthroughs (and the gov't letting us actually use them) the prediction is that I'm not likely to get significantly better.... A rather annoying aspect of the research is that nearly all the attention is focused on physical cord damage (broken backs where there is a single point of damage) as opposed to "ischemic" (doctor caused) damage that covers a large section of the cord.

I'm very much unhappy with what is publicly available in the way of chairs and other accessibility equipment - which is typically designed for "worst case" injuries and to meet every possible safety standard, and therefore ends up limiting what those of us with moderate disabilities can do... Once I get the foot pedal presser working, I will be getting back to work on making my own chair, based largely on the work being done over on WheelchairDriver.com which is a British site who's owner builds chairs that are miles above what the industry makes...

Gooserider

Who keeps deleting my posts? This will be my THIRD post in this thread! PM ME if there is a "problem". I hardly think I'm being rude or not following any forum rules?

Was just wondering exactly what happened? Saw the part about the tree falling, but you are in a wheelchair now?

I fell off a 10ft roof about 2 years ago and broke my back in a few places. Dr's said I was VERY lucky to be still walking.